Friday, November 16, 2012

Paper Mario: Sticker Star -- 2-5 Drybake Stadium

It's very quiet here for a stadium. Not much to see besides a door drawn on the rock. The Secret Door leads to a room with a Flashy Eekhammer, Flashy Spike Helmet, and Flashy Hurlhammer. There's something green behind the wall to the right. At the top of the stairs, something large and square is missing. This is where the three tablet pieces go. It looks like the letter "U" or "V" when put together. The sky turns dark and clouds roll in. The tablet pieces glow. It then unfolds to reveal a tall tower. The marking on the tablet is the arch of the doorway.

Kersti mentions that only someone with the power of a Royal Sticker could remove such a tower. Inside are Egyptian-style hieroglyphics, with Toads. There are stickers on the wall and Spikes and Paratroopas in the hallways. We need to place two stickers on the back wall. We place two Worn-Out Hammers and they are rejected. There's a curious laugh coming from the other side. On the right and left walls, there's a Toad holding an item. So left panel shoe, right panel hammer. It words and we hear Toad say, "Yeah!" The door opens. Get the Shiny Hammer and Shiny Jump, then hop on the platform to raise it.

Upstairs, Koopas and Goombas are part of the hieroglyphics and there's quicksand and spikes. Go to the right and sink partway into the quicksand so you can go under the wall and find the Stone Entry, which goes into "Scraps". Once we go back, we notice the Goombas on the wall start moving, then jump off the wall and battle us. These are Mural Goombas. They each have 13 HP. Likewise, the Mural Koopas jump off the wall. They have 13 HP as well. There are Spikes on the other side of the quicksand throwing spike balls at you. On the other side is a spot where the Stone Entry is supposed to be. Beware of the Buzzy Beetle in the doorway.

Take the platform up to the next level. Same puzzle as the first floor. Right panel shoe, middle spike helmet, left hammer. The platform takes us to a room with Buzzy Beetles. We leave the room, walk to the left, and go outside. In one of the windows, we see what looks like the back of Luigi's head. I was wondering when he'd show up. Sombrero Guy is nearby. Paperize and Luigi will look through the window. Peel him out of the window and a tiny Luigi will run off. What just happened? Go back inside and go over the sand and through the hole in the wall. Go to the left to return to part of the hallway. There's a huge pile of sand in front of the door. Go outside again and take the green pipe to the first part. It's the pipe behind the wall. Go back through the pipe and walk around the corner. There's a door that's not quite right, so paperize, peel it off, and replace it. Sand flows out the door.

We can now go through the door. The elevator takes us to a floor with another sticker puzzle, with multiple sticker images, but only two slots. This is a tricky puzzle. Check out the Toad where you're supposed to put the stickers. Which way do the head and feet face? Find the other two Toads holding items whose head and feet face the same way that Toad does. This opens the door to a Save Block and a Heart Block.

The elevator takes us up to an arena, where Kersti notices another Royal Sticker. The mural pictures are the audience. Someone says, "SHEEBYDEEBY..." There's a rumble under the Royal Sticker. "SHEENY SHOOBY SHINY SHLOO... SHINE-A-ROONEY!" A sparkly Pokey appears. It looks possessed. I fail the Battle Spin. We are told to PLAY BALL. I probably should've made the Bat into a sticker. We're up against the Tower Power Pokey, with 300 HP. He can spin in front of us to do multiple attacks. I try again after getting the Bat and get two stickers in the Battle Spin. The Bat does 30 damage. Not nearly enough. He can summon green Pokeys and fall on top of you. Try to crumple him with POW Blocks, then hit him with Thing Stickers for extra damage. I got 70 damage out of the Bat and 26 out of the Fan this way. Shiny Hopslippers also work well. He'll periodically grow segments, which will increase his defense. If he takes enough damage, the segments will go away. Use Jump attacks as you can't get close enough to use the hammer when he has two or more segments. Periodically, he can sprout a flower from his head to heal 10 HP. Lots of shiny stickers will slowly chip away at him. Oddly enough, if you get poisoned from the Battle Spin and jump on him, the poison may transfer to him for a turn (you'll still have it, though). After a long and tedious battle, we defeat him. Kersti notes that we still used a lot of stickers. Am I supposed to use only Thing Stickers in boss battles? The defeated Pokey says, "SHUH... SHI...NY... OW?" and disappears, leaving only the orange Royal Sticker. Kersti is impressed with its power. I want to use it in the fight against Bowser.

The mini story says that the Pokey picked up the Royal Sticker and Kamek made the tower disappear. He probably also gave the Royal Sticker to the Pokey. A new page is added to the album. We have 28 stickers left after the battle. Not bad.

If you go to almost any level and see a ring of flipped flowers, you can paperize there. put the shiny hurl hammer in the box and it will be flashy when it comes out. This works with other stickers too. Hope this helped!